January 20, 2025 • 28 mins
Message me with comments or questions
- Tired of feeling lost in the fog of menopause?
- Experiencing unexpected emotional eating?
- Ready to reclaim your health and happiness?
Join Kristin Jones on the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast as she explores the intricate connection between menopause and emotional eating.
- Uncover the science: Learn about the hormonal shifts that impact your mood, energy levels, and overall well-being.
- Challenge the myths: Discover how to navigate common symptoms with grace and confidence, dispelling the notion of silent suffering.
- Hear inspiring stories: Gain insights from personal experiences, including Kristin's own journey with hormone replacement therapy.
- Empower yourself: Find the resources and support you need to thrive during this life stage.
This episode is for any woman navigating menopause or supporting someone who is. Let's redefine aging on our terms – with knowledge, empowerment, and a vibrant, fulfilling life.
Connect with me online:
1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakthroughemotionaleating/
2. You Tube channel, Kristin Jones Coaching: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinJonesCoaching44
3. You Tube channel, Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@breakthroughpodcast-44
3 . Website: https://www.kristinjonescoaching.com
If you want to learn more about how to stop overeating at meals and lose weight easily, get my How To Stop Overeating At Meals Guide: https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/stop-overeating
Needing more specific and direct support for your emotional eating and overeating? Check out my online course, Stop Dieting Start Feeling, and my personalized coaching program, Breakthrough To You.
If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to leave a review on the platform you used to listen and share it with your friends on your Instagram stories. Also, be sure to follow me o...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay
committed to a meal plan becauseyou constantly feel hungry?
Does food provide you comfortwhen you are bored, angry,
lonely or sad?
If so, you are in the rightplace.
My name is Kristen Jones andI'm a life coach specializing in
emotional eating and weightloss, and I'm also a lifelong
(00:29):
emotional eater.
I want to provide you withinformation, motivation and
support so you, too, can learnto manage your issues with food
and develop a healthyrelationship with yourself.
Welcome to the BreakthroughEmotional Eating Podcast.
Hi and welcome to theBreakthrough Emotional Eating
(01:06):
Podcast.
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
this week, so I will.
This is a totally TMI too muchinformation, total transparency
podcast episode, and itabsolutely relates to if you
(01:27):
actually it relates to men andwomen.
This is not exclusively forwomen.
This is for men as well, andespecially if you're a man who
has a significant woman in hislife whether it's your sister,
whether it's your mother,whether it's your wife, it's
your neighbor you need to knowthese things too, and men also
need to know this informationabout hormones and hormonal
changes as we get older, becausethat was probably one of the
most shocking things that I havelearned in the last week is
(01:50):
that hormonal changes and whatwe call menopause for women is
something that happens to bothsexes and it's not really talked
about with men.
I'm not going to go into greatdetail when it comes to men
today that's a whole otherpodcast episode which we will
get to but we're going to talkabout menopause and we're going
(02:14):
to talk about what it is andwhat it isn't, and why it
happens and who it happens to,and the severity of what happens
and kind of what I've learnedover the course of the last five
days of my life that have justbeen monumental, like game
(02:36):
changers for me and also gamechangers for how I address and
help my clients who areemotional eaters, because all of
this, it all, it nothing,nothing is compartmentalized.
Everything goes together, itall intertwines.
So it's really really importantthat everyone, men and women,
(02:57):
know this information becauseit's so pertinent and so
relevant to the quality of yourlife.
I think that's probably thething that is the most.
That was the most hard hittingfor me.
Is I really and truly thoughtthat because I had not sought
(03:18):
any sort of help with thesesymptoms that I was having, like
I was just going to tough itout and that was going to be a
good thing and that was going tobe like I was just going to be
so proud of myself, like I waspatting myself on the back for
not ever having really asked orsought out any treatment for the
changes that were happening,until I realized that there was
(03:39):
no prize that I was going to getand the prize actually the
prize or the result that I wasgoing to get was possibly going
to be very, very negative andvery detrimental to my health.
So there, there seemed to be,and that's on, the only reason I
know anything, or don't knowanything about, didn't know
anything about menopause wasbecause my mom never talked
about it and my mom never soughttreatment, and so it was just
(04:02):
kind of like, well, that's whatyou do, you just suck it up and
you just deal with these changesthat happen as we move through
life.
And I've come to realize andcome to know that that doesn't
have to be.
That way Doesn't mean thatyou're trying to fight aging,
you're just trying to make it alittle bit more.
I don't want to say enjoyable,but just your life to continue
(04:27):
to be pleasant.
Because I will tell you.
I had an aunt, aunt Kay, godrest her soul.
I remember she went throughmenopause at 32 and she spoke
about it like it was the thiefthat stole all the joy out of
her life.
I mean really and truly.
I mean she would talk aboutmenopause and, oh my gosh, it
(04:49):
was the worst thing.
And my cousin will tell storiesabout how she used to throw
pots and pans across the kitchenat my uncle and at her and my
and my cousin.
And it's just.
It was just this horrible thingthat you were fearful of and it
(05:11):
doesn't have to be that waybecause because it happens to
everybody.
So I first want to start offwith talking about um.
Actually, first off, I want towelcome everybody to the podcast
and to remind you that I amalways going.
I record my podcast live in myFacebook group, breakthrough
Emotional Eating, and that groupobviously is on Facebook,
wwwfacebookcom forward slashgroups forward slash food
(05:33):
breakthrough.
Join the group.
We go live in the group eachweek.
That's where I record mypodcast.
Join the group.
We go live in the group eachweek.
That's where I record mypodcast.
And then my podcast getsdistributed onto Spotify and
Apple, itunes and all of theplaces that you can listen to
podcasts, but it's live in thegroup and then I kind of do a
little Q&A afterwards.
So you want to come into thegroup.
I have lots of informationabout emotional eating, about
(05:54):
how to lose weight as anemotional eater, the mindset,
the things you need to knowabout your brain, and we're
going to go much deeper intothese hormonal changes and the
hormonal changes andunderstanding how and why these
hormonal changes happen.
And then what are the thingsthat you can do about it and
that you can understand what youcan do about it.
(06:14):
So the first thing is what ismenopause?
So menopause is merely theending of your menstrual cycle.
So, the ending of yourmenstrual cycle.
You have to have not had aperiod for a year in order to be
considered in menopause, andwith the cessation of your
menstrual cycle, that meansyou're no longer able to
(06:36):
conceive a child and getpregnant.
But why does that happen?
Why does that happen?
You're no longer able toconceive a child and get
pregnant.
So, but, we have to kind of but, but why does that happen?
Like, why does that?
Why does that happen?
Um, and it happens because thisis how my, uh, my doctor, that
I, um, that I'm seeing um, whowill be a guest on my podcast.
Um, he explained it as your,your ovaries.
(06:57):
So your ovaries are obviouslysuper important, but your
ovaries kind of have like ashelf life.
They don't have an endlessshelf life.
They have a certain amount oftime that they are able to be
productive and from the timethat you get your first period
to the time that you get yourlast period can be anywhere
(07:18):
between 35, 40 years of time.
That's kind of the lifespan ofyour ovaries and your ovaries
not the eggs, but your ovariesare busy producing eggs and it's
also busy producing estrogen,progesterone and testosterone.
Testosterone is also created.
(07:38):
It's also manufactured in youradrenal glands.
It's also manufactured in yourskin, but it primarily is
between your ovaries and youradrenal glands.
And so your ovaries are really,really busy and they're active
and they do their things andthen, when they're done, they're
(08:00):
done, they, they just it's likethey just, they get tired.
That's the way he described itto me.
It's like your ovaries gottired, they get tired and they
stop producing those threehormones and the, and it also
obviously stops producing eggs.
And those three hormones are sovery vital, not just to your
(08:20):
reproductive health but to youroverall health in general.
So testosterone is what isimpactful in both your heart and
your brain and, obviously, yourreproductive system.
Testosterone is an essentialhormone, an essential chemical
(08:41):
for brain health as well asheart health.
So when testosterone levelsstart to reduce, after you stop
having a period, after yourovaries have decided they're not
going to do, they're done,they're retiring, they're not
doing their thing anymore, yourtestosterone levels start to go
down and that can impact yourcognitive delays, cognitive
(09:06):
abilities.
That's where you start to havebrain fog.
You walk from one room to thenext and you can't remember what
you were supposed to be doing.
Or sometimes I get through asentence and I'm like what was I
just thinking about?
I mean, all the time I do thatall the time and so that's a
result of lower testosterone.
(09:27):
And when it comes to your heartpeople who have low testosterone
it is shown that lowtestosterone also impacts your
heart, where it makes you morelikely to develop cardiovascular
disease as a result of havingthat low testosterone.
So there are so many thingsthat.
So that's first withtestosterone.
(09:48):
So when we, after we've youknow, after we stopped having a
period, testosterone levels dropand those things start to
happen.
We start to have that brain fogwe start to have we're not as
protected.
Our brain is not as protected.
We start to have that brain fogwe start to have we're not as
protected.
Our brain is not as protectedbecause it doesn't have that
hormone going through it.
Our heart is not protected asmuch because it doesn't have
that hormone going through it.
(10:09):
So both of those things aresuper, super important.
When my doctor said that, whenmy doctor said that, I was like
what?
Like I had no idea, I said so.
This is not like getting help,for having lower hormones is not
about I just want to lookyounger, I just want to feel
better.
This is more like yourlong-term longevity of your
(10:32):
heart and of your brain and howit's going to actually age with
you, and it's huge.
It's so incredibly importantand again, had no idea when it
comes to estrogen.
Your estrogen is related andreally really is impactful with
all your connective tissue.
So that would be your skin,your collagen skin, your
(11:03):
collagen, your vaginal dryness.
I mean all of those things areall related to your levels of
estrogen.
So when your estrogen drops,your skin starts to get dry, you
start to have issues withvaginal dryness, all of this
joint pain, I mean, oh my gosh,let's talk about some joint pain
.
I've had incredible joint painand I really think back and it's
been probably since 2021, 2022,that I have had just incredible
(11:29):
joint pain.
And when I go to see my doctor,he tells me I have arthritis.
I'm like, okay, I havearthritis, what can I do about
it?
Well, not really anything sogreat.
So it's it's that.
I'm sure I have arthritis, butI also know that I have some
other.
I have, I have joint painthat's associated with low
(11:51):
levels of estrogen because ofbeing um, being post, you know,
having been in menopause, beingpost, you know, having been
being in menopause, um and again, the, the estrogen, impacts the
joints.
So it's the joints, it's thetendons, it's the ligaments,
it's the skin Um, all of thosethings are all connected.
(12:12):
And when you don't have thatlubrication in your joints,
you're going to get, you'regoing to have stiffness, you're
going to be sore, you're goingto just have difficulty gripping
things stiffness, you're goingto be sore, you're going to just
have difficulty gripping things.
You know, I can't tell you howmany times I think, oh my gosh,
if I can't get the lid off ofthis, whatever it is, whatever
jar it is, I'm never going toeat this stuff because sometimes
I just can't get the, I can'tgrip things, and that is a
(12:32):
result.
That's a result of lowerestrogen as well.
So we have all of thesedifferent things that are
happening to our bodies.
Naturally, this is not a oh.
You might be impacted bymenopause.
No, everyone goes through this,men and women, men also.
(12:54):
Men's shelf life of theirtesticles is much longer.
Men can produce sperm to havebabies much later than women can
.
But women, but we all have thiskind of like finite window of
time in our reproductive historyand our reproductive lifespan,
(13:18):
and we have to be aware thatthose hormone levels are going
to drop in both men and women.
And so, specifically today,we're going to be talking about
women.
But as we experience thesethings, there are so many
different challenges that comeup and and we don't have to just
, we don't have to just settle,we don't have to just think like
(13:41):
, okay, this is just the way itis.
That was my saying.
This is just the way it is.
I guess this is just aging andit doesn't have to be that way.
But how is this impacting youreating habits?
Well, I will tell you.
It is dramatically impactingyour eating habits and it's
different for men and women.
(14:02):
So for a woman whosetestosterone levels have
decreased as a result of eitherbeing in perimenopause or in
menopause, a woman with lowtestosterone shows an increase
in appetite, an increase incravings and a tendency to
overeat.
(14:22):
And so those things are, thoseare automatically happening as a
result of lower testosterone.
The lower levels increase yourfeelings of hunger and your
desire to want to eat.
Compound that with the factthat lower testosterone also
creates mood fluctuations andshortness and irritability,
(14:46):
which can then in turn feed intoemotional eating and result in
emotional eating.
And also, low levels oftestosterone also have shown an
increase in the amount of bodyfat that a person accumulates
specifically around themidsection, and so that can lead
(15:08):
to disordered eating.
It can lead to again toovereating and just an overall
malaise and low energy, and lowenergy is another thing that it
just can absolutely zap yourenergy and make you so tired.
Sleeplessness that is also thattestosterone is the contributor
(15:29):
to lack of sleep and not beingable to sleep.
And then fluctuations inprogesterone as well, with
estrogen.
When you have a lower level ofestrogen, you have a tendency to
have weight gain in the belly.
This is so interesting I didnot know this that women who
(15:51):
have lower levels of estrogen intheir system.
They did a study of bingeeaters and a majority of the
binge eaters that they studiedhad lower than average levels of
estrogen.
That there is some correlationbetween whether it's an increase
in um, in um an appetite, or ifit's an increase in again that,
(16:14):
that mood stabilization and thecreation of that desire to want
to binge eat as well.
So all of those things are allintertwined and related.
And so you know, if you feellike, well, gosh, I got to, I
got to menopause and all thesethings started happening, yeah,
they did, because your hormonesare completely out of whack.
Um, so what led me to want to?
(16:38):
You know, to decide to do, todo this, um, I actually the the
thing that kind of got, becauseI honestly didn't even have, I
just didn't.
It wasn't even on my radar tothink about that.
All of these problems that Iwas having was related to my
hormones.
Never once did it connect withme until I met a woman in my uh
(17:02):
in one of my yoga classes andshe was interested in
introducing me to her husband.
Her husband is now my daughterand um, she was interested in in
because she really liked thethings that I talked about in
regards to emotional eating andhow I don't deal with food, that
I deal with the emotionalaspects and the whys behind your
(17:23):
eating and all of that.
And she wanted me to meet herhusband because they have a
thriving practice of where theyhelp women with intimate health
issues, but also they do have aweight loss program at their
office, but they are not.
They didn't have the staff tobe able to deal with the
emotional pieces and that sortof thing.
(17:43):
So they were really interestedin talking to me, learning more
about what I do and and andpossibly doing a partnership
with me.
So that was great.
So I was like, okay, that'swonderful.
Never did I even.
And then I thought, gosh, youknow, I should probably find out
what they do.
If I'm going to be, if I'mgoing to be a part of this
office, I need to find out whatthey do.
So we started talking aboutwhat they do and I thought, well
(18:06):
, gosh, I'm kind of curiousabout that.
I would be willing to do that,and so I decided that I would.
In the spirit of creating thiscollaboration with them.
I thought, okay, I'm going togo ahead and I'm going to kind
of go through what their systemis.
(18:26):
And oh my gosh, y'all.
I mean I thought it was, Ithought it was pretty well, you
know, I definitely have someissues, but I didn't know how
bad my situation was.
So I had my blood drawn and wehad my consultation and it turns
out that I not only had so.
A healthy level of testosteroneshould be somewhere around 300
(18:52):
to 600.
That should be the number thatyou're looking for, somewhere
between at least 300, maybe 600at the top end.
Mine was 13.
So that's pretty, that's prettyrough.
My estrogen didn't evenregister on my results, like it
(19:12):
was in the negative number, soit didn't even register.
It didn't even have wasn'tmaking any estrogen at all, or
the number is so low that thetest wasn't even able to detect
it.
And I also found out that I waspre-diabetic and I was not that
surprised about thepre-diabetic.
(19:32):
But at the same time itprobably is a long time coming.
The jig probably has to be upat some point, because I do like
my sweets.
I definitely promote the ideathat we don't.
You know, I don't want peopleto diet and I don't like to.
I don't want to diet, but I dowant to be my healthiest, and so
(19:52):
I really had to kind of look atlike, wow, I have a, I have
some work to do, I have somethings I need to.
I have some things I need towork on, um, so I will tell you
in complete and totaltransparency this was last
Thursday.
I decided to go with thepellets the pellets of
(20:14):
testosterone and estrogen andgot those inserted on Thursday,
felt amazing on Friday, sleptgreat on Thursday night, slept
amazing on Friday, had a greatday on Friday and Saturday.
I woke up and I didn't sleepwell and I was so off I was like
, oh my gosh, like I just feltreally like, oh, I'm just kind
(20:38):
of kind of sad, and so Sunday, alittle bit better, wasn't
feeling too bad.
Yesterday, monday, y'all, Icould have killed somebody.
I was.
I was absolutely like, just notmyself.
So I called the office and Isaid I was like, okay, I know my
(21:01):
numbers are super, super low,so I know, getting this stuff
and getting this, this hormonein me, my body's probably like,
oh my God, thank goodness.
And they were so incrediblyunderstanding, they were so nice
.
It turns out that I needed toalso be taking progesterone to
kind of balance out, to helpwith my sleep, to balance out
some of the the estrogen and theprogesterone that I was given,
(21:24):
but I hadn't.
They didn't have any at theoffice because of my, because of
me not using insurance.
They were going to order it forme and it was going to be
mailed to me.
Well, they didn't anticipatethat I was going to have such a
quick, dramatic impact.
You know it was going to havesuch a dramatic impact on my, on
how I was feeling.
And so, immediately, um, theoffice manager's like okay, I'm
(21:46):
calling in a prescription foryou.
So they called it.
They got me what I needed theprogesterone that I needed.
I started taking that lastnight.
Feel so much better today, feeljust feel good, feel like back
to you know, back to myself.
Um, but it's, it's definitely.
You know I'm.
I would never I'm not going totell anybody like oh yeah, it
was magic, it was just magic.
(22:07):
I got this, these pellets, putin and everything was great.
Um, there was definitely anadjustment.
There probably continued to bean adjustment, um of things.
But the one thing that I really, really, um appreciated was
that my doctor was incredibly,incredibly communicative, very,
(22:27):
very like, explained everythingto me.
I got the complete and totalrundown on my, on my blood work,
I know everything that's goingon with my body, um, but the
office was just so responsive toyou know, don't worry about
this, we'll get this taken careof.
We have some things that we cando, and it was just, it was so
incredibly, um, just gratifyingto be able to, to be able to, to
(22:50):
feel, to have these feelings,and then have someone say it's
okay, don't worry, we'll takecare of you.
And it was, and it, like itjust calmed me down immediately,
um.
So you know, I'm on this, onthis journey, looking forward to
.
The thing I'm probably lookingforward to the most is my
reduced joint pain.
That probably is the thing thatI cannot wait to see and feel a
(23:14):
significant difference in,because that has been the thing
that has held me back so much,because I'm an avid runner and I
was just not ready to give uprunning and I'm not ready to to
stop doing that because I just II enjoy it so much, but it has
been so curtailed because of thejoint pain that I have in my
knees and um.
So I'm really, really look,really looking forward to that.
(23:37):
Um, and also, I the other.
The other symptom that I had, orthat I have, is I have a
significant amount of muscleloss in my legs, and so much so
that I am very, veryself-conscious and I do not like
to wear, I won't like this.
Last summer, I barely woreshorts Because I just I just
(23:59):
don't like the way my legs look.
They just I'm just not happywith them, and I just thought
for as much as I work out how isthis, how, why is this
happening?
And it's it was, it was hormonerelated.
So really looking forward toseeing that, um, seeing some
changes in that, some positivechanges in that.
I'm not expecting me to looklike I did when I was 20, but,
um, I definitely know that thatthere is, you know, there is
(24:24):
hope.
There is a way for me to movein a direction that allows me
and would allow you to be ableto age in a way that we have
control over that.
We are able to have a say inhow we want to feel and the
direction that we want our livesto go, and I just think it's so
.
I'm just so grateful that thereare people out there that are
(24:47):
doing this kind of work and thatare really there to support
women and men.
Um, and men have men go throughthe same kind of, the same kind
of things, and you see allthose commercials for low T and
that's it's absolutely a thingfor men and, uh, it's something
that absolutely can um can beaddressed as well.
So, um, there, so there's justso much information out there.
(25:09):
There's so much more.
And again, hormone replacementis not for everybody.
If you have any history ofcancer, that kind of does rule
you out, or if you're at a highrisk for a certain type of
cancer, they would discourageyou from doing hormone
replacement.
So it's not necessarily foreverybody.
(25:30):
It absolutely is something that, um, you know, history has to
be taken into consideration, andbut there's just there, there
are things that we can do thatwe don't have to.
We don't have to live livesthat we don't want to live, and
I think that that, more thananything, that's always what
I've been about is just livingyour best life and living the
life that you want to live andcreating that for yourself, not
(25:53):
only from a physical standpoint,from a medical, from a mental
standpoint as well.
So, whatever, um, you know, Iwill continue to to keep you up
to date on on my journey, but Iwill be having my doctor, uh, dr
Peter Castillo.
I will be having him on as aguest on my podcast and I cannot
(26:14):
wait for you all to meet him.
He is just absolutely amazingand uh, and he'll be able to uh
to answer questions, uh, thatyou provide for me and I will
have him answer questions and itwill be just an amazing, an
amazing, amazing educationalexperience.
So I look forward to thathappening in the next couple of
weeks.
All right, y'all?
Well, I hope this, I hope thisepisode has been helpful and I
hope, if you are somebody who isstruggling with um, you know
(26:38):
just the, the, the symptoms ofof menopause, that and you're
and you're not sure what you cando or how you know how you can
go about about doing it.
Please, you know, reach out tome, um in you know, if it's on
Instagram, if it's through mypodcast, if it's um, you know
just sending me an email,anything like that.
I absolutely will share withyou everything that I have
(27:02):
learned and the resources that Ihave and hopefully we'll be
able to um make you know, helppeople um, just live the life
they want to live and and age ina way that is something that we
get to have a say in.
So all right, y'all.
Thank you so much for joiningme this week and I will see you
all next week, take care, thankyou.
(27:28):
Sign up for my free StopDieting 5-Step Guide.
Go towwwKristenJonesCoachingcom,
(27:51):
that'sK-R-I-S-T-I-N-JonesCoachingcom,
and click the Stop Dieting Guidebutton.
Thank you,
Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay
committed to a meal plan becauseyou constantly feel hungry?
Does food provide you comfortwhen you are bored, angry,
lonely or sad?
If so, you are in the rightplace.
My name is Kristen Jones andI'm a life coach specializing in
emotional eating and weightloss, and I'm also a lifelong
(00:29):
emotional eater.
I want to provide you withinformation, motivation and
support so you, too, can learnto manage your issues with food
and develop a healthyrelationship with yourself.
Welcome to the BreakthroughEmotional Eating Podcast.
Hi and welcome to theBreakthrough Emotional Eating
(01:06):
Podcast.
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
this week, so I will.
This is a totally TMI too muchinformation, total transparency
podcast episode, and itabsolutely relates to if you
(01:27):
actually it relates to men andwomen.
This is not exclusively forwomen.
This is for men as well, andespecially if you're a man who
has a significant woman in hislife whether it's your sister,
whether it's your mother,whether it's your wife, it's
your neighbor you need to knowthese things too, and men also
need to know this informationabout hormones and hormonal
changes as we get older, becausethat was probably one of the
most shocking things that I havelearned in the last week is
(01:50):
that hormonal changes and whatwe call menopause for women is
something that happens to bothsexes and it's not really talked
about with men.
I'm not going to go into greatdetail when it comes to men
today that's a whole otherpodcast episode which we will
get to but we're going to talkabout menopause and we're going
(02:14):
to talk about what it is andwhat it isn't, and why it
happens and who it happens to,and the severity of what happens
and kind of what I've learnedover the course of the last five
days of my life that have justbeen monumental, like game
(02:36):
changers for me and also gamechangers for how I address and
help my clients who areemotional eaters, because all of
this, it all, it nothing,nothing is compartmentalized.
Everything goes together, itall intertwines.
So it's really really importantthat everyone, men and women,
(02:57):
know this information becauseit's so pertinent and so
relevant to the quality of yourlife.
I think that's probably thething that is the most.
That was the most hard hittingfor me.
Is I really and truly thoughtthat because I had not sought
(03:18):
any sort of help with thesesymptoms that I was having, like
I was just going to tough itout and that was going to be a
good thing and that was going tobe like I was just going to be
so proud of myself, like I waspatting myself on the back for
not ever having really asked orsought out any treatment for the
changes that were happening,until I realized that there was
(03:39):
no prize that I was going to getand the prize actually the
prize or the result that I wasgoing to get was possibly going
to be very, very negative andvery detrimental to my health.
So there, there seemed to be,and that's on, the only reason I
know anything, or don't knowanything about, didn't know
anything about menopause wasbecause my mom never talked
about it and my mom never soughttreatment, and so it was just
(04:02):
kind of like, well, that's whatyou do, you just suck it up and
you just deal with these changesthat happen as we move through
life.
And I've come to realize andcome to know that that doesn't
have to be.
That way Doesn't mean thatyou're trying to fight aging,
you're just trying to make it alittle bit more.
I don't want to say enjoyable,but just your life to continue
(04:27):
to be pleasant.
Because I will tell you.
I had an aunt, aunt Kay, godrest her soul.
I remember she went throughmenopause at 32 and she spoke
about it like it was the thiefthat stole all the joy out of
her life.
I mean really and truly.
I mean she would talk aboutmenopause and, oh my gosh, it
(04:49):
was the worst thing.
And my cousin will tell storiesabout how she used to throw
pots and pans across the kitchenat my uncle and at her and my
and my cousin.
And it's just.
It was just this horrible thingthat you were fearful of and it
(05:11):
doesn't have to be that waybecause because it happens to
everybody.
So I first want to start offwith talking about um.
Actually, first off, I want towelcome everybody to the podcast
and to remind you that I amalways going.
I record my podcast live in myFacebook group, breakthrough
Emotional Eating, and that groupobviously is on Facebook,
wwwfacebookcom forward slashgroups forward slash food
(05:33):
breakthrough.
Join the group.
We go live in the group eachweek.
That's where I record mypodcast.
Join the group.
We go live in the group eachweek.
That's where I record mypodcast.
And then my podcast getsdistributed onto Spotify and
Apple, itunes and all of theplaces that you can listen to
podcasts, but it's live in thegroup and then I kind of do a
little Q&A afterwards.
So you want to come into thegroup.
I have lots of informationabout emotional eating, about
(05:54):
how to lose weight as anemotional eater, the mindset,
the things you need to knowabout your brain, and we're
going to go much deeper intothese hormonal changes and the
hormonal changes andunderstanding how and why these
hormonal changes happen.
And then what are the thingsthat you can do about it and
that you can understand what youcan do about it.
(06:14):
So the first thing is what ismenopause?
So menopause is merely theending of your menstrual cycle.
So, the ending of yourmenstrual cycle.
You have to have not had aperiod for a year in order to be
considered in menopause, andwith the cessation of your
menstrual cycle, that meansyou're no longer able to
(06:36):
conceive a child and getpregnant.
But why does that happen?
Why does that happen?
You're no longer able toconceive a child and get
pregnant.
So, but, we have to kind of but, but why does that happen?
Like, why does that?
Why does that happen?
Um, and it happens because thisis how my, uh, my doctor, that
I, um, that I'm seeing um, whowill be a guest on my podcast.
Um, he explained it as your,your ovaries.
(06:57):
So your ovaries are obviouslysuper important, but your
ovaries kind of have like ashelf life.
They don't have an endlessshelf life.
They have a certain amount oftime that they are able to be
productive and from the timethat you get your first period
to the time that you get yourlast period can be anywhere
(07:18):
between 35, 40 years of time.
That's kind of the lifespan ofyour ovaries and your ovaries
not the eggs, but your ovariesare busy producing eggs and it's
also busy producing estrogen,progesterone and testosterone.
Testosterone is also created.
(07:38):
It's also manufactured in youradrenal glands.
It's also manufactured in yourskin, but it primarily is
between your ovaries and youradrenal glands.
And so your ovaries are really,really busy and they're active
and they do their things andthen, when they're done, they're
(08:00):
done, they, they just it's likethey just, they get tired.
That's the way he described itto me.
It's like your ovaries gottired, they get tired and they
stop producing those threehormones and the, and it also
obviously stops producing eggs.
And those three hormones are sovery vital, not just to your
(08:20):
reproductive health but to youroverall health in general.
So testosterone is what isimpactful in both your heart and
your brain and, obviously, yourreproductive system.
Testosterone is an essentialhormone, an essential chemical
(08:41):
for brain health as well asheart health.
So when testosterone levelsstart to reduce, after you stop
having a period, after yourovaries have decided they're not
going to do, they're done,they're retiring, they're not
doing their thing anymore, yourtestosterone levels start to go
down and that can impact yourcognitive delays, cognitive
(09:06):
abilities.
That's where you start to havebrain fog.
You walk from one room to thenext and you can't remember what
you were supposed to be doing.
Or sometimes I get through asentence and I'm like what was I
just thinking about?
I mean, all the time I do thatall the time and so that's a
result of lower testosterone.
(09:27):
And when it comes to your heartpeople who have low testosterone
it is shown that lowtestosterone also impacts your
heart, where it makes you morelikely to develop cardiovascular
disease as a result of havingthat low testosterone.
So there are so many thingsthat.
So that's first withtestosterone.
(09:48):
So when we, after we've youknow, after we stopped having a
period, testosterone levels dropand those things start to
happen.
We start to have that brain fogwe start to have we're not as
protected.
Our brain is not as protected.
We start to have that brain fogwe start to have we're not as
protected.
Our brain is not as protectedbecause it doesn't have that
hormone going through it.
Our heart is not protected asmuch because it doesn't have
that hormone going through it.
(10:09):
So both of those things aresuper, super important.
When my doctor said that, whenmy doctor said that, I was like
what?
Like I had no idea, I said so.
This is not like getting help,for having lower hormones is not
about I just want to lookyounger, I just want to feel
better.
This is more like yourlong-term longevity of your
(10:32):
heart and of your brain and howit's going to actually age with
you, and it's huge.
It's so incredibly importantand again, had no idea when it
comes to estrogen.
Your estrogen is related andreally really is impactful with
all your connective tissue.
So that would be your skin,your collagen skin, your
(11:03):
collagen, your vaginal dryness.
I mean all of those things areall related to your levels of
estrogen.
So when your estrogen drops,your skin starts to get dry, you
start to have issues withvaginal dryness, all of this
joint pain, I mean, oh my gosh,let's talk about some joint pain
.
I've had incredible joint painand I really think back and it's
been probably since 2021, 2022,that I have had just incredible
(11:29):
joint pain.
And when I go to see my doctor,he tells me I have arthritis.
I'm like, okay, I havearthritis, what can I do about
it?
Well, not really anything sogreat.
So it's it's that.
I'm sure I have arthritis, butI also know that I have some
other.
I have, I have joint painthat's associated with low
(11:51):
levels of estrogen because ofbeing um, being post, you know,
having been in menopause, beingpost, you know, having been
being in menopause, um and again, the, the estrogen, impacts the
joints.
So it's the joints, it's thetendons, it's the ligaments,
it's the skin Um, all of thosethings are all connected.
(12:12):
And when you don't have thatlubrication in your joints,
you're going to get, you'regoing to have stiffness, you're
going to be sore, you're goingto just have difficulty gripping
things stiffness, you're goingto be sore, you're going to just
have difficulty gripping things.
You know, I can't tell you howmany times I think, oh my gosh,
if I can't get the lid off ofthis, whatever it is, whatever
jar it is, I'm never going toeat this stuff because sometimes
I just can't get the, I can'tgrip things, and that is a
(12:32):
result.
That's a result of lowerestrogen as well.
So we have all of thesedifferent things that are
happening to our bodies.
Naturally, this is not a oh.
You might be impacted bymenopause.
No, everyone goes through this,men and women, men also.
(12:54):
Men's shelf life of theirtesticles is much longer.
Men can produce sperm to havebabies much later than women can
.
But women, but we all have thiskind of like finite window of
time in our reproductive historyand our reproductive lifespan,
(13:18):
and we have to be aware thatthose hormone levels are going
to drop in both men and women.
And so, specifically today,we're going to be talking about
women.
But as we experience thesethings, there are so many
different challenges that comeup and and we don't have to just
, we don't have to just settle,we don't have to just think like
(13:41):
, okay, this is just the way itis.
That was my saying.
This is just the way it is.
I guess this is just aging andit doesn't have to be that way.
But how is this impacting youreating habits?
Well, I will tell you.
It is dramatically impactingyour eating habits and it's
different for men and women.
(14:02):
So for a woman whosetestosterone levels have
decreased as a result of eitherbeing in perimenopause or in
menopause, a woman with lowtestosterone shows an increase
in appetite, an increase incravings and a tendency to
overeat.
(14:22):
And so those things are, thoseare automatically happening as a
result of lower testosterone.
The lower levels increase yourfeelings of hunger and your
desire to want to eat.
Compound that with the factthat lower testosterone also
creates mood fluctuations andshortness and irritability,
(14:46):
which can then in turn feed intoemotional eating and result in
emotional eating.
And also, low levels oftestosterone also have shown an
increase in the amount of bodyfat that a person accumulates
specifically around themidsection, and so that can lead
(15:08):
to disordered eating.
It can lead to again toovereating and just an overall
malaise and low energy, and lowenergy is another thing that it
just can absolutely zap yourenergy and make you so tired.
Sleeplessness that is also thattestosterone is the contributor
(15:29):
to lack of sleep and not beingable to sleep.
And then fluctuations inprogesterone as well, with
estrogen.
When you have a lower level ofestrogen, you have a tendency to
have weight gain in the belly.
This is so interesting I didnot know this that women who
(15:51):
have lower levels of estrogen intheir system.
They did a study of bingeeaters and a majority of the
binge eaters that they studiedhad lower than average levels of
estrogen.
That there is some correlationbetween whether it's an increase
in um, in um an appetite, or ifit's an increase in again that,
(16:14):
that mood stabilization and thecreation of that desire to want
to binge eat as well.
So all of those things are allintertwined and related.
And so you know, if you feellike, well, gosh, I got to, I
got to menopause and all thesethings started happening, yeah,
they did, because your hormonesare completely out of whack.
Um, so what led me to want to?
(16:38):
You know, to decide to do, todo this, um, I actually the the
thing that kind of got, becauseI honestly didn't even have, I
just didn't.
It wasn't even on my radar tothink about that.
All of these problems that Iwas having was related to my
hormones.
Never once did it connect withme until I met a woman in my uh
(17:02):
in one of my yoga classes andshe was interested in
introducing me to her husband.
Her husband is now my daughterand um, she was interested in in
because she really liked thethings that I talked about in
regards to emotional eating andhow I don't deal with food, that
I deal with the emotionalaspects and the whys behind your
(17:23):
eating and all of that.
And she wanted me to meet herhusband because they have a
thriving practice of where theyhelp women with intimate health
issues, but also they do have aweight loss program at their
office, but they are not.
They didn't have the staff tobe able to deal with the
emotional pieces and that sortof thing.
(17:43):
So they were really interestedin talking to me, learning more
about what I do and and andpossibly doing a partnership
with me.
So that was great.
So I was like, okay, that'swonderful.
Never did I even.
And then I thought, gosh, youknow, I should probably find out
what they do.
If I'm going to be, if I'mgoing to be a part of this
office, I need to find out whatthey do.
So we started talking aboutwhat they do and I thought, well
(18:06):
, gosh, I'm kind of curiousabout that.
I would be willing to do that,and so I decided that I would.
In the spirit of creating thiscollaboration with them.
I thought, okay, I'm going togo ahead and I'm going to kind
of go through what their systemis.
(18:26):
And oh my gosh, y'all.
I mean I thought it was, Ithought it was pretty well, you
know, I definitely have someissues, but I didn't know how
bad my situation was.
So I had my blood drawn and wehad my consultation and it turns
out that I not only had so.
A healthy level of testosteroneshould be somewhere around 300
(18:52):
to 600.
That should be the number thatyou're looking for, somewhere
between at least 300, maybe 600at the top end.
Mine was 13.
So that's pretty, that's prettyrough.
My estrogen didn't evenregister on my results, like it
(19:12):
was in the negative number, soit didn't even register.
It didn't even have wasn'tmaking any estrogen at all, or
the number is so low that thetest wasn't even able to detect
it.
And I also found out that I waspre-diabetic and I was not that
surprised about thepre-diabetic.
(19:32):
But at the same time itprobably is a long time coming.
The jig probably has to be upat some point, because I do like
my sweets.
I definitely promote the ideathat we don't.
You know, I don't want peopleto diet and I don't like to.
I don't want to diet, but I dowant to be my healthiest, and so
(19:52):
I really had to kind of look atlike, wow, I have a, I have
some work to do, I have somethings I need to.
I have some things I need towork on, um, so I will tell you
in complete and totaltransparency this was last
Thursday.
I decided to go with thepellets the pellets of
(20:14):
testosterone and estrogen andgot those inserted on Thursday,
felt amazing on Friday, sleptgreat on Thursday night, slept
amazing on Friday, had a greatday on Friday and Saturday.
I woke up and I didn't sleepwell and I was so off I was like
, oh my gosh, like I just feltreally like, oh, I'm just kind
(20:38):
of kind of sad, and so Sunday, alittle bit better, wasn't
feeling too bad.
Yesterday, monday, y'all, Icould have killed somebody.
I was.
I was absolutely like, just notmyself.
So I called the office and Isaid I was like, okay, I know my
(21:01):
numbers are super, super low,so I know, getting this stuff
and getting this, this hormonein me, my body's probably like,
oh my God, thank goodness.
And they were so incrediblyunderstanding, they were so nice
.
It turns out that I needed toalso be taking progesterone to
kind of balance out, to helpwith my sleep, to balance out
some of the the estrogen and theprogesterone that I was given,
(21:24):
but I hadn't.
They didn't have any at theoffice because of my, because of
me not using insurance.
They were going to order it forme and it was going to be
mailed to me.
Well, they didn't anticipatethat I was going to have such a
quick, dramatic impact.
You know it was going to havesuch a dramatic impact on my, on
how I was feeling.
And so, immediately, um, theoffice manager's like okay, I'm
(21:46):
calling in a prescription foryou.
So they called it.
They got me what I needed theprogesterone that I needed.
I started taking that lastnight.
Feel so much better today, feeljust feel good, feel like back
to you know, back to myself.
Um, but it's, it's definitely.
You know I'm.
I would never I'm not going totell anybody like oh yeah, it
was magic, it was just magic.
(22:07):
I got this, these pellets, putin and everything was great.
Um, there was definitely anadjustment.
There probably continued to bean adjustment, um of things.
But the one thing that I really, really, um appreciated was
that my doctor was incredibly,incredibly communicative, very,
(22:27):
very like, explained everythingto me.
I got the complete and totalrundown on my, on my blood work,
I know everything that's goingon with my body, um, but the
office was just so responsive toyou know, don't worry about
this, we'll get this taken careof.
We have some things that we cando, and it was just, it was so
incredibly, um, just gratifyingto be able to, to be able to, to
(22:50):
feel, to have these feelings,and then have someone say it's
okay, don't worry, we'll takecare of you.
And it was, and it, like itjust calmed me down immediately,
um.
So you know, I'm on this, onthis journey, looking forward to
.
The thing I'm probably lookingforward to the most is my
reduced joint pain.
That probably is the thing thatI cannot wait to see and feel a
(23:14):
significant difference in,because that has been the thing
that has held me back so much,because I'm an avid runner and I
was just not ready to give uprunning and I'm not ready to to
stop doing that because I just II enjoy it so much, but it has
been so curtailed because of thejoint pain that I have in my
knees and um.
So I'm really, really look,really looking forward to that.
(23:37):
Um, and also, I the other.
The other symptom that I had, orthat I have, is I have a
significant amount of muscleloss in my legs, and so much so
that I am very, veryself-conscious and I do not like
to wear, I won't like this.
Last summer, I barely woreshorts Because I just I just
(23:59):
don't like the way my legs look.
They just I'm just not happywith them, and I just thought
for as much as I work out how isthis, how, why is this
happening?
And it's it was, it was hormonerelated.
So really looking forward toseeing that, um, seeing some
changes in that, some positivechanges in that.
I'm not expecting me to looklike I did when I was 20, but,
um, I definitely know that thatthere is, you know, there is
(24:24):
hope.
There is a way for me to movein a direction that allows me
and would allow you to be ableto age in a way that we have
control over that.
We are able to have a say inhow we want to feel and the
direction that we want our livesto go, and I just think it's so
.
I'm just so grateful that thereare people out there that are
(24:47):
doing this kind of work and thatare really there to support
women and men.
Um, and men have men go throughthe same kind of, the same kind
of things, and you see allthose commercials for low T and
that's it's absolutely a thingfor men and, uh, it's something
that absolutely can um can beaddressed as well.
So, um, there, so there's justso much information out there.
(25:09):
There's so much more.
And again, hormone replacementis not for everybody.
If you have any history ofcancer, that kind of does rule
you out, or if you're at a highrisk for a certain type of
cancer, they would discourageyou from doing hormone
replacement.
So it's not necessarily foreverybody.
(25:30):
It absolutely is something that, um, you know, history has to
be taken into consideration, andbut there's just there, there
are things that we can do thatwe don't have to.
We don't have to live livesthat we don't want to live, and
I think that that, more thananything, that's always what
I've been about is just livingyour best life and living the
life that you want to live andcreating that for yourself, not
(25:53):
only from a physical standpoint,from a medical, from a mental
standpoint as well.
So, whatever, um, you know, Iwill continue to to keep you up
to date on on my journey, but Iwill be having my doctor, uh, dr
Peter Castillo.
I will be having him on as aguest on my podcast and I cannot
(26:14):
wait for you all to meet him.
He is just absolutely amazingand uh, and he'll be able to uh
to answer questions, uh, thatyou provide for me and I will
have him answer questions and itwill be just an amazing, an
amazing, amazing educationalexperience.
So I look forward to thathappening in the next couple of
weeks.
All right, y'all?
Well, I hope this, I hope thisepisode has been helpful and I
hope, if you are somebody who isstruggling with um, you know
(26:38):
just the, the, the symptoms ofof menopause, that and you're
and you're not sure what you cando or how you know how you can
go about about doing it.
Please, you know, reach out tome, um in you know, if it's on
Instagram, if it's through mypodcast, if it's um, you know
just sending me an email,anything like that.
I absolutely will share withyou everything that I have
(27:02):
learned and the resources that Ihave and hopefully we'll be
able to um make you know, helppeople um, just live the life
they want to live and and age ina way that is something that we
get to have a say in.
So all right, y'all.
Thank you so much for joiningme this week and I will see you
all next week, take care, thankyou.
(27:28):
Sign up for my free StopDieting 5-Step Guide.
Go towwwKristenJonesCoachingcom,
(27:51):
that'sK-R-I-S-T-I-N-JonesCoachingcom,
and click the Stop Dieting Guidebutton.
Thank you,
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